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Cleaning off my desk just before Christmas 2017 I found a 2017 seed catalog with prominently displayed flowers and flowering trees on the cover. I thumbed through it and began thinking of my honey bees. What would I like to plant this spring to help my bees and other pollinators? So I hit the Internet and Google.

Below I condensed what I found with a few personal observations and many links to bee friendly sites. There are a lot of sites listing bee friendly plants and each contains more links to similar topics so it is very easy to get lost and/or sidetracked.

Since I have horses as well as bees I did more detailed research on what trees and plants may be harmful to livestock. I didn’t look at all the plants listed as “bee friendly” but I annotated those that I did investigate.

I don’t imagine that you will plant many of the garden or flower plants in the middle of a pasture so the notes I made are just for information. But if you do have horses, cattle, goats, sheep or other livestock it might be worth a quick query "{plant name} poisonous to {livestock name}" before spending money and time planting. And making sure those beloved horses can’t get into the garden.

Most of the Bitterroot valley is in plant hardiness zone 5, with the lower levels in the valley in 5b and areas up on some of the benches and foothills moving into 5a and sometimes 4b which indicates somewhat lower temperatures in the winter. The following link opens an interactive map showing plant hardiness zones in Montana and a list of Montana cities and many links to other weather related maps

I annotated a little information on the list: like bloom periods and livestock compatibility and linked it below. I will try to update the list. If you have any additions or additional information on particular plants please email: